Working Title: Accountability in a Progressive School Context
Paragraph:
How do you ensure that students are accountable in a school without numeric grades and an explicit disciplinary policy? In this presentation, we will discuss our middle school's response to this common quandary. We will provide insight into the development and implementation of two new forms of teacher-parent communication, including student and parent feedback to both these forms. Attendees will see sample documents of each communication, as well as samples of the meaningful and productive conversations that these documents fomented. Following the presentation, attendees will break into small group discussions. In this format, they will discuss their own methods of ensuring accountability. .
Presentation Outline: -Introduction to school, team, process (3 min) - Karrie Welcome to Baker Demonstration School. I'm Karrie Fisher - the library director, and this is Jon Bingaman - LA teachers, Patrick Dunafin - PE teacher, Mike Gnutek - Art Teacher, Alex Haines - Math teacher, and Tyler Leach - Latin teacher. We represent two teams in the school -- the Middle School and All-School Teams. Baker began as a demonstration -- or lab school, for National Louis University's teaching school for students in PreK - 8th grades. Eight years ago, NLU made a decision to close the school, so a devoted group of parents and investors began the process of reinventing the school as an independent school. Keeping the school's original philosophy as a progressive school was a priority, and over the years we've experienced some amazing growth and have reinvented the school, and we're still growing. We continue to serve PreK - 8th grades, and are very much a progressive school. Our students learn in the early childhood years in play-based classes, and our older students learn from experience on a daily basis. We continue to be a work in progress, and one of the areas that we've been working on is parent-teacher communication, and creating meaningful and useful progress reports for the Middle School students so they can become successful life-long learners. I'm going to turn this over to Tyler, who will explain our Academic Status Update forms. Thank you and welcome, again, to Baker.
-Attendees fill out Academic Status Update (5 min) - Tyler -Walk through development of Academic Status Update (5 min) - Tyler, Jon -Overview of feedback from students & parents (3 min) - Jon, Mike -Walk through development of Fall Progress Report Checklist (3 min) - Alex As a middle school team, we determined 10 core qualities that we wanted our 8th graders to embody. Based on those qualities, we developed a set of habits and practices that would exemplify those core qualities. Students would self-assess, then teachers would give their feedback. These forms would be supplemented by content-based skills created by each teacher. These would be used as the starting point of each conference, and it gave teachers the ability to give specific feedback in a relatively quick way while still being meaningful to the parents and students. This would also be useful documentation of any concerning trends earlier in the year, before the written comments that come out in the fall. -Overview of feedback from students & parents and the resulting amendments to the checklist (3 min) - Alex We sent a survey to parents and got some good feedback 1) Lots of positive feedback from parents who wanted an earlier update from all teachers. 2) Overload of info – 2 pages per teacher was a lot. 3) Were teachers influenced by students? 4) Disparity between performance on similar skills between teachers We also felt somewhat affected by students’ self-perception and agreed about the overload. Additionally, we felt that some of the skills were not observable by teachers. Amendments: 1) Shorter in length – All on One Page 2) Observable skills only 3) Double Blind -Discussion of the ways in which this could be adapted for All School Team (5 min) - Patrick, Karrie, Mike Karrie - I use the Academic Status Report forms when I am teaching information literacy skills, i.e., research process and methods. I use them when I have issues with students, but also when a student does good work in class. They have been effective, and the parent response has always been helpful. Mike - The Academic Status Reports have been particularly useful regarding student sketchbooks. In MS art classes, sketchbooks support the learning and concepts presented in class. This year, sketchbooks provide sustained artistic conceptualization outside of the art room. The Academic Status Reports remind students to complete their sketchbook assignments, make the students accountable, and inform the parents about each assignment. Academic Status Reports are also very useful when encouraging student success in the art room. -Cafe discussion to compare our reporting structures to those of other schools.
Questions: How is student progress reported in your school? What parts are most effective? What parts are lacking? For whom are the reports generated (i.e. parents, students, etc...)? How are the reports used after the semester/quarter end? What is our system missing? What role does student self-assessment play in your assessment structure?
Thanks so much for your response - it helps a lot. We are planning on pursuing conversation at the team leader meeting about how to have your group share with EC and TIM. It seems like since you are interested in surveying people that you see are looking for ongoing feedback! We love that! Also please keep thinking about the symposium in April. Don't forget to share the process of how you got to this point because it seems very interesting and important. The Group
DEAR COMMUNICATION AND PROGRESS REPORTING GROUP:
You have so much that can be shared from your work this fall!
Could the “process” leading up to the development of the new progress report, Academic Status Update (ASU), and results from the parent feedback survey be shared at the April Symposium? How has the new format of the Progress Report, ASU, and parent feedback survey helped you with parent/teacher conferences and communication in general? How do you see it contributing to the larger question of “how do we know what students know”?
We would be comfortable sharing our reports, updates, and feedback from parents at the April Symposium. Information from the new progress reports will help to direct this week's advisor conferences. Rather than spending 5 minutes with each teacher during conferences in the cafeteria, we now have a comprehensive report from each class that will be used to direct our conversations with parents. These new progress reports allow us the chance to include valuable student reflection in our reports -- we get a better sense of knowing what our students know when we include them in the conversation.
Do you see yourself sharing the results of your work within the Baker community (i.e. other grade level teachers)? Outside of the Baker community (i.e. peer schools)? Possibilities could include a poster session, presentation/workshop, etc. Your topic particularly lends itself to a panel approach including faculty, parents and students that could give their perspectives, sharing examples of artifacts that you have created (Progress Report and ASU), including results from the parent feedback survey.
We look forward to sharing results with the rest of the school. While the reports may not be directly transferable, information found in the MS reports may lend itself well to reports from TIM and EC teachers. We have already shared our Academic Status Updates with the AST, and they have adapted the Updates to serve their needs (The Academic Status Update has become the Academic/Behavioral Status Update).
What support (time, resources, NLU faculty, etc.) do you need going forward? What do you need to accomplish some of the items previously listed on the wiki (i.e. identifying peer schools and how they do report/communication systems; where students go to high school, etc.)?
We would like to develop an electronic version of this October's Progress Report. We need to explore survey options (Survey Monkey?) and also figure out who will be surveyed (parents, students, administrators, and teachers).
-The Group Inquiry Group Update Date: 9/30/11
Names: Alex Haines, Patrick Dunafin, Michael Gnutek, Jon Bingaman, Paul Fleck, Tyler Leach, Karrie Fisher
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Statement summarizing focus: We are looking to improve communication and the process of progress reporting between teachers, students, and parents.
Where are you individually? Alex: Coordinating completion of Fall MS progress reports. Patrick: Working on implementation of new reports with All-School Team members. Mike: Working on implementation of new reports with All-School Team members Jon: Meeting with AST to discuss the potential of Academic Status Updates. Paul: Minutes. Tyler: Collection of feedback from parents and students.
Where are you as a group? Academic Status Updates are currently being used in the Middle School. We are in the process of collecting parent feedback about the ASUs. The new MS progress reports will go live in October.
Possibilities for April symposium contribution: Poster session, presentation, workshop, panel, discussion facilitator, show video of classroom/discussion, ask students to participate in panel, show artifacts from class, lead activity. These are some ideas, but remember that there are many other possibilities. Feel free to think outside the box!
Where are you going individually? (Please include initial idea for the symposium in April):
TBD -- waiting on feedback from Q1 reports.
Where are you going as a group? (Please include initial idea for the symposium in April):
Inquiry Group Update Communication and Progress Reporting
Date: 5/16
Names: Tyler, Jon, Alex, Gretchen, Mike
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Plans for next year: Implement a new system of progress reporting for the Middle School that includes a new schedule of reporting and new schedule of conferences in the fall and spring. Send out Academic Status Updates, when appropriate, from the beginning of the year.
What we will need: Organized meeting time with the Middle School Team (including All School Team) and Administration. Newly formatted Progress Report Template. New schedule for Parent/Teacher conferences. Communication to parents from administration about the changes in Progress Reporting and Conferencing.
Date: 4/25
Names: Tyler, Jon, Alex, Gretchen, Mike
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Statement summarizing focus:
What we have done so far: Instituted Academic Status Update in the Middle School
Student handbook Baker-wide handbook with separate sections for each division Parent Handbook
Progress Report Structure Middle School Specific (three times a year) -All school Team (two times a year) Conference Structure
Sliding Scale grade reporting with student and teacher input component. Mastered, Working Knowledge, Needs Improvement
For inquiry next time: Collect feedback for ASUs Piece together a template/mock report and an explanation of what we’re doing with the ASUs.
Inquiry Group Update
Communication and Progress Reporting
Date: 2/28
Names: Tyler, Jon, Alex, Gretchen, Mike
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Statement summarizing focus:
How can we optimize our communication with students and parents?
What role do Narrative progress reports play in this process?
How can we improve the frequency of written communication to parents without creating
busywork for teachers?
What is the role of parent/teacher conferences and how can we streamline the process to
provide useful information on a timely scale?
How do we involve teacher, parents, student, and advisor in the process of progress reporting.
What we have done so far:
Just formed group.
(not yet)
Rough sketch of a standardized “current progress” report that can be emailed to parents,
advisors, and students. (word and .pdf format)
Sketch out a possible conference schedule/
What we are doing next:
Need to identify a list of peer schools
Query peer school about the way they focus their grade reports/communication systems.
Academic research on communications systems.
Set up a contact list for Middle School Students> Student@bakerdemschool.org email addresses?
Student calendar?
Email database? Contacts for parents and students (File Maker?)
Acceptable use policy?
Next steps after sending an Academic Status Update:
Meetings?
Tracking progress?
Self reflection?
Who decides when different people get involved? (Administrative involvement?)
What we need:
At this point, we need time and a list of schools that we identify as peer schools/
competitors. It will also help to have a better idea about numbers of students who go on to
public high schools and numbers of students who go on to independent high schools (we also
need to know which schools).
Feedback about notifications.
Information about student contact info
Filemker capabilities
Working Title: Accountability in a Progressive School Context
Paragraph:
How do you ensure that students are accountable in a school without numeric grades and an explicit disciplinary policy? In this presentation, we will discuss our middle school's response to this common quandary. We will provide insight into the development and implementation of two new forms of teacher-parent communication, including student and parent feedback to both these forms. Attendees will see sample documents of each communication, as well as samples of the meaningful and productive conversations that these documents fomented. Following the presentation, attendees will break into small group discussions. In this format, they will discuss their own methods of ensuring accountability.
.
Presentation Outline:
-Introduction to school, team, process (3 min) - Karrie
Welcome to Baker Demonstration School. I'm Karrie Fisher - the library director, and this is Jon Bingaman - LA teachers, Patrick Dunafin - PE teacher, Mike Gnutek - Art Teacher, Alex Haines - Math teacher, and Tyler Leach - Latin teacher. We represent two teams in the school -- the Middle School and All-School Teams. Baker began as a demonstration -- or lab school, for National Louis University's teaching school for students in PreK - 8th grades.
Eight years ago, NLU made a decision to close the school, so a devoted group of parents and investors began the process of reinventing the school as an independent school. Keeping the school's original philosophy as a progressive school was a priority, and over the years we've experienced some amazing growth and have reinvented the school, and we're still growing.
We continue to serve PreK - 8th grades, and are very much a progressive school. Our students learn in the early childhood years in play-based classes, and our older students learn from experience on a daily basis. We continue to be a work in progress, and one of the areas that we've been working on is parent-teacher communication, and creating meaningful and useful progress reports for the Middle School students so they can become successful life-long learners.
I'm going to turn this over to Tyler, who will explain our Academic Status Update forms. Thank you and welcome, again, to Baker.
-Attendees fill out Academic Status Update (5 min) - Tyler
-Walk through development of Academic Status Update (5 min) - Tyler, Jon
-Overview of feedback from students & parents (3 min) - Jon, Mike
-Walk through development of Fall Progress Report Checklist (3 min) - Alex
As a middle school team, we determined 10 core qualities that we wanted our 8th graders to embody. Based on those qualities, we developed a set of habits and practices that would exemplify those core qualities.
Students would self-assess, then teachers would give their feedback. These forms would be supplemented by content-based skills created by each teacher.
These would be used as the starting point of each conference, and it gave teachers the ability to give specific feedback in a relatively quick way while still being meaningful to the parents and students. This would also be useful documentation of any concerning trends earlier in the year, before the written comments that come out in the fall.
-Overview of feedback from students & parents and the resulting amendments to the checklist (3 min) - Alex
We sent a survey to parents and got some good feedback
1) Lots of positive feedback from parents who wanted an earlier update from all teachers.
2) Overload of info – 2 pages per teacher was a lot.
3) Were teachers influenced by students?
4) Disparity between performance on similar skills between teachers
We also felt somewhat affected by students’ self-perception and agreed about the overload. Additionally, we felt that some of the skills were not observable by teachers.
Amendments:
1) Shorter in length – All on One Page
2) Observable skills only
3) Double Blind
-Discussion of the ways in which this could be adapted for All School Team (5 min) - Patrick, Karrie, Mike
Karrie - I use the Academic Status Report forms when I am teaching information literacy skills, i.e., research process and methods. I use them when I have issues with students, but also when a student does good work in class. They have been effective, and the parent response has always been helpful.
Mike - The Academic Status Reports have been particularly useful regarding student sketchbooks. In MS art classes, sketchbooks support the learning and concepts presented in class. This year, sketchbooks provide sustained artistic conceptualization outside of the art room. The Academic Status Reports remind students to complete their sketchbook assignments, make the students accountable, and inform the parents about each assignment. Academic Status Reports are also very useful when encouraging student success in the art room.
-Cafe discussion to compare our reporting structures to those of other schools.
Questions:
How is student progress reported in your school?
What parts are most effective? What parts are lacking?
For whom are the reports generated (i.e. parents, students, etc...)?
How are the reports used after the semester/quarter end?
What is our system missing?
What role does student self-assessment play in your assessment structure?
Hello C and PR Group -
Thanks so much for your response - it helps a lot. We are planning on pursuing conversation at the team leader meeting about how to have your group share with EC and TIM. It seems like since you are interested in surveying people that you see are looking for ongoing feedback! We love that! Also please keep thinking about the symposium in April. Don't forget to share the process of how you got to this point because it seems very interesting and important.
The Group
DEAR COMMUNICATION AND PROGRESS REPORTING GROUP:
You have so much that can be shared from your work this fall!
-The Group
Inquiry Group Update
Date: 9/30/11
Names: Alex Haines, Patrick Dunafin, Michael Gnutek, Jon Bingaman, Paul Fleck, Tyler Leach, Karrie Fisher
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Statement summarizing focus: We are looking to improve communication and the process of progress reporting between teachers, students, and parents.
Where are you individually?
Alex: Coordinating completion of Fall MS progress reports.
Patrick: Working on implementation of new reports with All-School Team members.
Mike: Working on implementation of new reports with All-School Team members
Jon: Meeting with AST to discuss the potential of Academic Status Updates.
Paul: Minutes.
Tyler: Collection of feedback from parents and students.
Where are you as a group?
Academic Status Updates are currently being used in the Middle School. We are in the process of collecting parent feedback about the ASUs. The new MS progress reports will go live in October.
Possibilities for April symposium contribution: Poster session, presentation, workshop, panel, discussion facilitator, show video of classroom/discussion, ask students to participate in panel, show artifacts from class, lead activity. These are some ideas, but remember that there are many other possibilities. Feel free to think outside the box!
Where are you going individually? (Please include initial idea for the symposium in April):TBD -- waiting on feedback from Q1 reports.
Where are you going as a group? (Please include initial idea for the symposium in April):
Inquiry Group Update
Communication and Progress Reporting
Date: 5/16
Names: Tyler, Jon, Alex, Gretchen, Mike
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Plans for next year: Implement a new system of progress reporting for the Middle School that includes a new schedule of reporting and new schedule of conferences in the fall and spring. Send out Academic Status Updates, when appropriate, from the beginning of the year.
What we will need: Organized meeting time with the Middle School Team (including All School Team) and Administration. Newly formatted Progress Report Template. New schedule for Parent/Teacher conferences. Communication to parents from administration about the changes in Progress Reporting and Conferencing.
Date: 4/25
Names: Tyler, Jon, Alex, Gretchen, Mike
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Statement summarizing focus:
What we have done so far:
Instituted Academic Status Update in the Middle School
What we are potentially looking at next:
Student handbook
Baker-wide handbook with separate sections for each division
Parent Handbook
Progress Report Structure
Middle School Specific (three times a year)
-All school Team (two times a year)
Conference Structure
Sliding Scale grade reporting with student and teacher input component.
Mastered, Working Knowledge, Needs Improvement
For inquiry next time:
Collect feedback for ASUs
Piece together a template/mock report and an explanation of what we’re doing with the ASUs.
Inquiry Group Update
Communication and Progress Reporting
Date: 2/28
Names: Tyler, Jon, Alex, Gretchen, Mike
Primary contact person: Tyler Leach
Statement summarizing focus:
How can we optimize our communication with students and parents?
What role do Narrative progress reports play in this process?
How can we improve the frequency of written communication to parents without creating
busywork for teachers?
What is the role of parent/teacher conferences and how can we streamline the process to
provide useful information on a timely scale?
How do we involve teacher, parents, student, and advisor in the process of progress reporting.
What we have done so far:
Just formed group.
(not yet)
Rough sketch of a standardized “current progress” report that can be emailed to parents,
advisors, and students. (word and .pdf format)
Sketch out a possible conference schedule/
What we are doing next:
Need to identify a list of peer schools
Query peer school about the way they focus their grade reports/communication systems.
Academic research on communications systems.
Set up a contact list for Middle School Students>
Student@bakerdemschool.org email addresses?
Student calendar?
Email database? Contacts for parents and students (File Maker?)
Acceptable use policy?
Next steps after sending an Academic Status Update:
Meetings?
Tracking progress?
Self reflection?
Who decides when different people get involved? (Administrative involvement?)
What we need:
At this point, we need time and a list of schools that we identify as peer schools/
competitors. It will also help to have a better idea about numbers of students who go on to
public high schools and numbers of students who go on to independent high schools (we also
need to know which schools).
Feedback about notifications.
Information about student contact info
Filemker capabilities